1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a gas cooker, particularly a gas cooker which serves both as an oven and a grill with a burner.
Generally, gas cookers have been of various types, for example, an oven range of a convection type, a grill range, and a gas range with both an oven and a grill.
In an oven range, a burner is mounted on the bottom of the cooking chamber. In a grill range, a burner is mounted on the top of the cooking chamber. The burner of the oven range is constructed to perform an oven function, and the burner of the grill range is constructed to perform a grill function.
Because a gas cooker with one burner functions as either an oven or a grill, but not both, it has a limited cooking function. Thus, it has the disadvantage that it must have a separate burner in order to fulfill both functions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known gas cooker with two burners has both an oven function and a grill function. The cooker includes a grill burner at the top of the cooking chamber and an oven burner at the bottom of the cooking chamber. A food container is put between the two burners. A heat reflecting plate which reflects the burning heat downwardly toward the food is mounted above the grill burner. A heat radiating plate installed at a predetermined position between the food container and the oven burner serves as a screen to keep the burning heat of the oven burner from being directly applied to the food container; rather the heat is applied indirectly to the container. Accordingly, a gas cooker with two burners performs either of two cooking functions chosen by the user who selectively operates either the grill burner or the oven burner.
A typical example of a gas burner with two burners is disclosed in Japanese Utility Publication SHO 61-1002. Two burners are installed, one at the bottom and one at the top of the cooking chamber. Mounted centrally at the top is a heat radiating plate which covers the top burner and is mounted at a predetermined distance from the top of the gas cooker. The heat radiating plate has a generally cup-shaped cross section. Many holes are drilled lengthwise and crosswise in the heat radiating plate. The heat radiating plate extends from the front side to the back side of the cooking chamber and its length is shorter than the length of the side wall. The heat radiating plate is inserted telescopingly into a heat control plate which is hollow and forms an internal space shaped correspondingly to the heat radiating plate. A multitude of holes are drilled in the heat control plate in the same pattern as the ones drilled in the heat radiating plate. The heat radiating plate is shorter than the hollow space of the heat control plate so as to be slidable lengthwise therein. Thus, when the heat radiating plate is slid between two extreme positions relative to the heat control plate, the holes in the heat radiating plate are either aligned or non-aligned with the holes in the heat control plate, i.e., the holes are either opened or closed. Thus, the heat applied to the food is controlled by the heat radiating plate and the heat control plate which are positioned between the food container and the top burner.
However, in that gas cooker, because two burners are installed in the cooking chamber, i.e., at the top and bottom thereof, and also because the heat radiating plate and the heat reflecting plate are mounted at the top of the cooking chamber, the gas cooker has the following disadvantages: the inside structure of the cooking chamber is complicated, the space of the cooking chamber is small, and the manufacturing cost is high because of the provision of two burners.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a gas burner possessing both an oven function and a grill function using only one burner.
Another object of the invention is to provide a gas cooker having a bottom burner which can directly or indirectly apply heat to foods with the use of a heat control mechanism.